It's Not What You Are Born, It's What You Be
by Roselina4389
Summary: Harry reflects on his life as he tells a story to his children, a story with many lessons.


**This story is for the twelfth round of the QLFC. I am a Chaser 2, writing for the Kestrals.**

**My prompts are (word) hate and (word) starstruck. Needed to write about a fairytale. My fairytale was 'The Ugly Duckling'.**

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><p><strong>It's Not What You Are Born, It's What You Be.<strong>

Harry still had the occasional lingering feelings of **hate** and begrudgment. For the Dursleys. For Umbridge. For everything he had gone through.

Right after his parents had died, things had been awful for him. Thrown on the doorstep of his relatives, he was neglected and ill-kept until he turned eleven. He still remembered the scrawny, ugly git he used to be-round glasses too big for his small, thin face, pale complexion, bony stature.

He remembered the story Aunt Petunia had read to Dudley in the living room-The Ugly Duckling, it was called.

"'_The little duckling looked at it's reflection in the water and saw itself. He heard his brothers and sisters laughing behind him, saying: "Ugly Duckling! What an ugly duckling!" And the duckling grew very sad_.'" Aunt Petunia had read, her voice going oddly high-pitched when any dialogue arose.

Dudley had wrinkled his nose, leant over the arm of the sofa, stared at his six-year old cousin dusting the floor and had said loudly: "Ha! That's you! _You're_ the ugly duckling, Cousin!"

Harry had been upset, but hadn't dared to answer.

Now, grown-up, thirty-four year old Harry still fumed over it sometimes, thought about it. He hadn't completely forgiven his cousin and he wasn't about to start now. If Dudley had wanted to associate him with the Ugly Duckling, that was fine by him. But a part in Harry's heart, a really crazy part, began to think that his life really _had_ been like the Ugly Duckling's. It was just a stupid muse, a thought...But it made sense.

He had been a scruffy little thing which nobody-not at home, not at school-liked. When he had arrived at Hogwarts, things had finally begun to change. It was like the ugly, stupid child who Aunt Petunia jeered at and Uncle Vernon ordered about was some kind of prince...-a hero. He had felt proud, better, and in a part of his heart was so relieved that he couldn't help the stupid grin that came whenever he saw anyone smile at him in admiration.

And then his second and third year went by. When Harry had reached his fifth year, however, things had changed. Everyone had pointed at him and belittled him, written rude articles about him, jeered at him. But that had finally ended too-By the end of his fifth year and by sixth year he was absolutely chased after. He _couldn't_ forget the disastrous Romilda Vane spiked-chocolates incident, which had hurt Ron instead of him.

From a small, skinny boy, he had turned into a hero-a proud, victorious hero.

It was like the Ugly Duckling. From an ugly grey duckling to a proud swan.

Just like...Just like many other people he knew. It had happened to several people, in their own ways. For example, Voldemort. He had been a poor, sullen boy in an orphanage and then he had become a great wizard, known-by-all, even if he _did_ go a little twisted.

And...and Snape. From his awful clothes and over-long hair, he had turned out to be a brilliant student, an immensely courageous man, somebody everyone knew now that Harry had told the press about his true loyalites.

Harry thought about it some more. Hermione? She hadn't been exactly somebody who everyone liked and now she was one of the most famous women he knew-because she had helped him defeat Voldemort.

Nearly everyone had a little Ugly Duckling inside them, starting their lives from bad and ending them with great. They just needed to work things out so that their life could be like that.

So, maybe he didn't mind Dudley calling him that after all. Maybe he _agreed_ with him. Maybe it was just how things were always destined to be.

Harry loved his children. James, Albus, Lily. He told them stories every night, when Ginny was too tired to do it herself. He told them Wizarding stories, about all the great people he knew. And occasionally he told them a few Muggle stories from his childhood.

"Aunt Hermione told me that Cinderella is a really nice story!" Lily piped one night. Harry settled down on the side of the bed with a sigh, a fat book of Muggle fairytales in his hands. Sometimes this duty was extremely tedious. He read to the children in their room. Lily still stared the boy's room but she would be getting her own room soon.

"Ewww!" James pretended to puke. Albus wrinkled his nose.

"I WANT TO HEAR CINDEREL-" Lily began, her face screwing up.

"What about something new, guys?" Harry asked, anxiously.

"I like that one-_The Beauty and the Beast_. The Beast is seriously cool, like a werewolf, but I _hate_ when they fall in love. Mum told me about it and I nearly _gagged_ when I found out that the silly girl and the beast fell in love and then he turned into a stupid, handsome prince-boring, boring, boring!"

"I like_ The Little Mermaid_," Albus said, quietly. "It's ever so sad,"

"_NO_!" James looked shocked. He looked at Albus mockingly. "You're a girl,"

Harry loved his children equally but he savoured Albus's quiet nature. He was intelligent and quiet and didn't like having fights. He was like his namesake, Severus Snape, in that respect. And he was also wise and gave good advice just like his first namesake, Albus Dumbledore.

"Stop teasing Al, James." Harry said, sternly.

"What's wrong with being a girl?" Lily was confused.

"Okay, okay, quieten down! Let's see..._The Princess and the Pea._.._Goldilocks_..._Red Riding_ _Hood_...Ah!_ The Ugly Duckling_. Would you like this one?"

There was a contemplative pause.

"Hmm..." Lily mused. "I like ducklings."

"It sounds nice," Albus said, reasonably.

"_I_ don't like silly old ducks. I want ACTION! I'm not a baby anymore. I want to listen to some Star Wars, like Hugo does!"

"Star Wars is not a story. I'll tell you The Ugly Duckling, then. You'll like it." And Harry flipped opened the first page of the story and started to read.

"Can I see the pictures?" Lily whispered.

Harry tilted the book slightly so that she could see the illustrations of the eggs and the cracking in one of them. Lily looked **starstruck**.

"'_Once upon a time there were a little clutch of eggs in the nest and when the Mother Duck went to check on them, she saw the little cracks forming on them and got very excited. She called Father Duck and they watched as crack, crack, crack, the eggs opened one by one, and the little ducklings stepped out, nice and whitish. Soon all the eggs had cracked, except one, which took a little longer. A slightly larger duckling stepped out of it, and it seemed to be a dark, furry little thing which looked nothing like it's parents or siblings.'"_

"Why?" Lily demanded.

"Let's see," Harry said, shushing her.

"'_His brothers and sisters laughed at him and he felt tears pool in his eyes. Even his parents didn't seem to like the sight of him very much and talked about him in hushed whispers. But the Mother Duck was sweet. She led him kindly towards the pond so that they could start their first swimming lesson. They didn't say anything more about his looks just yet. But then things started to get stranger as the ducklings began to hop in the pond one-by-one...'"_

Harry went on and on, telling the story with relish, telling all the journeys that the duckling, the _ugly_ duckling, went through and finally the end of the story came, with the duckling finding out that he was a swan.

"'And the Swan lived happily ever after, and no one ever teased him again...The End."

Harry found Lily sleeping peacefully on her pillow and James blinking up at him sleepily.

"Nice?" Harry asked, curiously.

"It was great," Albus yawned. "Good night, Dad,"

Harry smiled and went to turn off the lamp. "Night, guys. If you need me, just call, okay?"

"'Kay," Albus and James said in unison.

"Dad, could you read that to me again sometime? I wish _everybody_ could turn out to be something better after all that teasing," Albus said.

"They do," Harry said, earnestly. "They just need to try. It happens nearly everytime,"

Albus, who had been teased a lot at school because he was a quiet person and wasn't really as fierce when it came to defending himself as James and Lily were, whispered: "Really?"

"Really." Harry said, and then he said goodnight one last time and closed the door softly, feeling oddly light-hearted.

**THE END**

**-Review please!-**


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